Cremation has had a long history, being adopted at different times and in different cultures. Interest in it in the Western world was revived in the second half of the 19^th century when it was taken up as a cause by reformers who argued that it was more hygienic and “modern” than traditional earth burial. Their campaigns were assisted by the application of new technology which saw the development of specially designed furnaces and purpose built crematoria.

In Australia, cremation was advocated seriously from the 1860s onwards, particularly by a series of prominent medical practitioners like Dr John Le Gay Brereton, and Dr John Mildred Creed in Sydney, Dr James Neild in Melbourne, and Dr Robert Wylde in Adelaide. Dr Creed became known as the father of cremation in Australia. He tried unsuccessfully to have cremation legislation passed in NSW in 1886 and 1887, and in 1890 he formed Australia’s first Cremation Society to promote the cause. His example was eventually followed in all the other Australian colonies, with the formation of local cremation societies, campaigns promoting cremation and advocating cremation legislation, and efforts to raise funds and find suitable sites to build modern crematoria. 

The cremationists had to counter considerable opposition. Many people thought cremation was at best irreligious and at worst barbaric. The strongest opponents came from the Catholic Church which banned cremation for its members in 1886, and did not finally remove the ban until the 1960s. Others argued that Australia had plenty of land for earth burials and there was no need for change. Supporters came from a surprisingly broad range within the community. They included medical practitioners, politicians, scientists, public health officials, religious figures, educationists, social reformers and women’s rights campaigners, successful businessmen and lawyers. Many were from Australia’s professional and social elite, creating an early image problem for the cremationists in their attempts to get all classes interested.

South Australia achieved the first Cremation Act in 1891 and, after a decade of fund raising, built the first modern crematorium, adjacent to Adelaide’s West Terrace Cemetery. The first cremation there was on 4 May 1903. In Victoria, after a Cremation Bill was passed in 1903, a simple outdoor furnace was constructed at Melbourne’s Springvale Cemetery and used from 1905 onwards. But it was many more years before a second modern crematorium was available. The only alternative was open-air funeral pyre cremations, and several of these were conducted on the outskirts of Melbourne, Sydney and Perth in the 1890s.

In NSW, Dr Creed reformed the cremation campaign and the Cremation Society in 1908, but their work was sidelined by the outbreak of World War I. After the war, the local cremationists formed a private cremation company and eventually obtained the lease on some government land in Rookwood Cemetery. They raised funds and commissioned local architect Frank I’Anson Bloomfield to draw up plans for a modern crematorium. In 1923 a NSW Cremation Act was finally passed and building work began on a simple design which allowed for future expansion. The first cremation at Rookwood Crematorium was conducted on 28 May 1925. There were 122 cremations in the first year of operation and the success set off something of a crematorium building boom around Australia.

In Melbourne, Fawkner Crematorium was opened in 1927.  In Sydney, Northern Suburbs Crematorium was opened in 1933, Woronora Crematorium in 1934, and Eastern Suburbs Crematorium in 1938. Near Newcastle, Beresfield Crematorium was opened in 1936. There were also modern crematoria built in Brisbane in 1934, at Melbourne’s Springvale in 1936, Hobart in 1936, Perth in 1937 and Launceston in 1939.

The NSW Crematoria were all architecturally designed large-scale undertakings. Northern Suburbs was another Frank Bloomfield design, whilst prominent Sydney architect Louis Leighton Robertson was responsible for Woronora, Eastern Suburbs and Beresfield. Rookwood and Northern Suburbs were run by the Cremation Society and its private company, Eastern Suburbs and Woronora by their Cemetery Trusts, and Beresfield by another private company established by Newcastle businessmen.

War again held up progress, but by the 1950s cremation was being widely accepted by Australians. From the 1960s it began to overtake earth burial as the first choice of a majority of people. Depending on proximity to a crematorium around Australia it can now be the choice for anywhere between 50% and 70% of people.